Action against soldiers for ‘disrespecting’ bodies of militants? Read this

Taking cognizance of a video in which soldiers are seen disrespecting the bodies of militants killed in an encounter, the army said it would take suitable action.

“Suitable action would follow,” Defence spokesperson Colonel Rajesh Kalia assured reporters about the video taken after the encounter killing of Lashkar-e-Toiba commander Abu Ismail and his aide Abu Qasim in Nowgam area of Srinagar on Thursday.

Both militants were Pakistani nationals and were killed in a joint operation of army and J&K police on Thursday evening.

Sources said the input for the action was provided by the technical cell of the J&K police that tracked Qasim’s cell phone and followed his movements closely since Thursday morning.

Ismail, in his mid 20s, had infiltrated into Kashmir some four years ago and had recently taken charge of the Lashkar’s operations in the Valley.

He was designated as the operation commander by the LeT after Abu Dujana joined the Kashmir chapter of Zakir Musa’s al-Qaida some months ago. Security forces killed Dujana in early August.

Sources said after Ismail’s killing, the LeT is likely to announce 28-year-old Zeenat-ul-Islam as its new operations chief in Kashmir.

Zeenat, a resident of Zanpora in south Kashmir’s Shopian district, is considered one of the main accused in the Shopian attack in February that left three soldiers dead.

“He (Zeenat) is among the five most wanted militants in Kashmir. The others being Zakir Musa, Riyaz Naikoo, Saddam Padder and Khalid, believed to be commander of Pakistan-based outfit, Jaish-e-Mohammad,” they said. “Other than Khalid, the rest are locals,” they added.